Another thing to note are the resources you have on hand as well.

My least favorite classes in college were the classes that were taught by someone very good in their field, but lousy at teaching. Or worse yet, that scenerio and then also having that person's book on the subject as your textbook. They would then teach the textbook in class - and if you had any questions, you couldn't then refer to the textbook as an alternative reference and hope that the idea is explained there in a different way that you might understand better than the idea you had in class.

Some of the best classes I had were classes using a great textbook and a teacher that had a great understanding of the concepts and would teach it how he envisioned it - but differently than the way the textbook explained it.
That way if you didn't get what happened in class, you had a different resource to reach to - instead of having duplicate resources - neither of which you understand.

so just like you said, it really depends what resources you have on hand - if they aren't very good - then you are much better off teaching yourself.

I've also found that once you have a pretty firm grasp on programming in general, then the less teaching you need and the more just a reference book will work. Not always the case - but frequently the case.

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There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.